Sprengelpark

Sprengelpark
	Park in Berlin
	Park with a sidewalk
	Basic data
place	Berlin
District	Wedding
Surrounding streets	; Sprengelstrasse, Kiautschoustrasse
	use
User groups	Leisure time , children, foot traffic
Park design	2006-2007
	Technical specifications
Parking area	10,000 m²
building-costs	€ 548,000
52 ° 32 '27.8 " N , 13 ° 21' 11.1" E Coordinates: 52 ° 32 '27.8 " N , 13 ° 21' 11.1" E

The Sprengelpark is a park with an area of one hectare in the Berlin district of Wedding ( Mitte district ) between Sprengelstrasse and Kiautschoustrasse on the site of the former Rohrbach Metallflugzeugbau aircraft company .

history

The area of today's park has a long history as an industrial area, which began in 1867 with the North German Factory for Railway Operations Material AG . From 1879 the Norddeutsche Lagerhaus AG established itself there , which from 1902 parceled the area between Torfstrasse, Triftstrasse, Tegeler, Lynarstrasse and the north bank and sold the building plots to individuals and construction companies who began to build multi-storey apartment buildings. Not least because of the Royal Institute for Infectious Diseases, which has been on the north bank since 1900, and the Rudolf Virchow Hospital , which opened in 1906, apartments of high standards are also being built.

In 1905 the newly created Sprengelstraße (between Tegeler Weg and Torfstraße), Kiautschoustraße and Samoastraße as well as Pekinger Platz received their names. The eastern part of Sprengelstrasse between Sparrstrasse and Tegeler Weg was dedicated on August 4, 1897 and the land was built on. In the blocks, however, some plots remained undeveloped, which were shown in the address book as "construction sites".

Norddeutsche Lagerhaus AG, which was in liquidation, gradually sold the remaining properties, but the property at Kiautschoustraße 8-12 remained in the company's possession until the 1920s and was designated as a construction site, as did the properties at Sprengelstraße 28-32 .

From 1924 Rohrbach Metallflugzeugbau acquired these properties. A production hall measuring 60 m × 46 m was created, designed by the Berlin architect Werner March , which was finally only demolished in 2004. There was also an office building for the construction department on Kiautschoustraße and an expansion of the factory hall. By 1931, a total of 31 aircraft had been built there, which had to be dismantled and transported through the narrow streets to the north port and from there on inland vessels to Kiel . The choice of location was unusual in that it was far from any airport and offered no opportunities for expansion. It can be assumed that this was done for reasons of camouflage, since aircraft construction in Germany was then prohibited by the Treaty of Versailles . The company was not only involved in civil aircraft construction, but also tried to get orders from the Reichswehr Ministry . It is known that Rohrbach applied for a loan from the Reichswehr Ministry for the expansion of his aircraft factory as early as autumn 1923.

At the beginning of the 1930s, the economic situation worsened, so that Rohrbach sold the company to DeSchiMAG , which united it with Weser-Flugzeugbau GmbH in 1934 . Initially, the company planned to continue production there, but from 1936 the company relocated to Lemwerder near Bremen . The plant then became the property of the Luftfahrtkontor , which in 1940 handed it over to Luftfahrtanlagen GmbH , a trustee of the German Reich . As early as 1937, the manufacturing equipment building GmbH , a company owned by the Luftfahrtanlagen GmbH, which carried out Wehrmacht orders here.

After the end of the Second World War , the manufacturing equipment building GmbH was still the owner of the site, but was subject to French military administration . What was produced here is unclear, however. The empty halls were used from 1954 to 1967 by Meteor Ventilatoren AG and various small businesses. In 1967 the property and the buildings on it came into the ownership of the State of Berlin and continued to be used by small businesses .

In the 1980s, the Berlin Senate commissioned urban planning investigations into a new use of the site. The monument status of the assembly hall was checked; but it was not placed under monument protection.

With the exception of two buildings on Kiautschoustraße, all halls and workshops on the industrial site were demolished in 2004, including the central assembly hall built by Werner March in 1924. The conversion into a park was now planned.

Planning and implementation

After it was established that Mettmannplatz could only be used to a limited extent due to the construction of the S21 S-Bahn line , compensatory measures were defined as part of the planning approval , including a. in the Sprengelkiez on Pekinger Platz and to the north, the Sprengelpark between Kiautschoustrasse and Sprengelstrasse.

In the early summer of 2004, the planning work began with the participation of the residents in several planning workshops under the direction of the planning office Margret Benninghoff Landscape Architects, who is also responsible for the redesign of Beijing Square. The future design was discussed on three public dates on the basis of prepared floor plans. After discussions among the groups, the different ideas could be put on paper and presented to one another. It turned out that, surprisingly, the results of the working groups were not far apart. A mix of play and relaxation areas, which are traversed by a Y-shaped network of paths from north to south, were a common denominator in all the designs. The name “Sprengelpark” was also chosen by the local residents during a naming competition. The planning office concerned with public participation formed a joint compromise from the three drafts that were created in this way, which also takes into account the official requirements.

layout

The German Bahn AG financed the measure as compensation for the superstructure of the Mettmann square. The Mitte district was the client and made the area between Sprengelstrasse and Kiautschoustrasse available for this compensatory measure. In the interests of nature and species protection, 1625 m² of lawns, 3410 m² of bushes and hedges had to be created and 80 trees had to be planted. In addition, paths and squares, play areas, resting areas, a play ship made of natural stones, an aircraft inlay with an information stele reminiscent of the history of the place were made. The park is fenced. Dogs shouldn't stay here. Suggestions for the design of the play and sports areas were obtained from a participation of children and young people in November 2005. The planning and construction costs of the first construction phase totaled around 548,000 euros.

In a second construction phase, playground equipment was set up, a climbing rock and a pavilion against rain were created. An oval stage was placed in front of the existing seating steps for small performances. Contents for the design of the play and sports areas were determined as part of a child and youth participation in November 2005 and completed in 2008. On March 27, 2007, the district office in Mitte decided to dedicate and name the Sprengelpark green area. After almost a year of construction, the first section of the Sprengelpark was completed and officially opened on September 1, 2007 by District Mayor Christian Hanke . Representatives of the Sparrplatz district management, the landscape architect Margret Benninghoff and representatives of the Central Road and Green Area Office also took part.

The architect Thomas Wolf in collaboration with his wife, the historian Judith Hahn, commissioned the Sparrplatz district management and the Berlin Senate Department for Urban Development to create a memorial stele in the form of an airplane at the entrance in Sprengelstrasse. The stele consists of a concrete foundation and an aircraft inlay six meters long. There is a brochure holder for three text panels on which the history of the aircraft factory and the development of the area is presented. This was accompanied by a brochure that describes the story in more detail.